Tag Archives: Human rights

Supreme Court Signals It Will Uphold ‘State-Sanctioned Discrimination’ in Transgender Care Case

“We the people means all the people,” said the ACLU. “There is no ‘transgender’ exception to the U.S. Constitution.”

By Julia Conley Published 12-4-2024 by Common Dreams

Transgender rights supporters rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case on transgender health rights on December 4, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Photo: ACLU Massachusetts/X

Attorneys who argued against Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed hope that the court’s nine justices will take “the opportunity to affirm the essential freedom and equality of all people before the law,” while reports indicated that the right-wing majority is inclined to uphold the ban.

“Every day this law inflicts further pain, injustice, and discrimination on families in Tennessee and prevents them from receiving the medical care they need,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee, which represented three families and a physician. “We ask the Supreme Court to commit to upholding the promises of the U.S. Constitution for all people by putting an end to Tennessee’s state-sanctioned discrimination against trans youth and their families.”

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‘Monumental Victory’: Wisconsin Judge Axes Walker-Era Attack on Union Rights

“All Wisconsinites deserve the opportunity to live in a state that treats all workers with respect and dignity,” one state representative said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 12-3-2024 by Common Dreams

Screenshot: WISN

More than a decade after it sparked massive protests in the state capital, a Wisconsin judge on Monday struck down a controversial law that effectively ended public sector collective bargaining in the state.

In his final judgement, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost crossed out 85 sections of the 2011 law known as Act 10, which was championed by then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Frost’s ruling restored the union rights of teachers, sanitation workers, nurses, and other public sector employees.

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Major Plastic Polluters Win as UN Treaty Talks Conclude Without Agreement

“Every day that governments allow polluters to continue flooding the world with plastic, we all pay the price,” said one campaigner.

By Jon Queally. Published 12-1-2024 by Common Dreams

A bale of crushed PET drink bottles at a recycling facility in San Jose, California Photo: Grendelkhan/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Environmental groups on Sunday decried the conclusion of a United Nations summit designed to secure an international treaty to combat plastic pollution after powerful oil- and gas-producing nations refused to agree to production limits and other more aggressive measures to curb pollution.

Failure to reach an agreement means the talks—known as the INC-5 round that took place in Busan, South Korea—will be extended to another round, but campaigners said the sabotage of a far-reaching treaty by fossil fuel interests is wasting precious time that the world’s ecosystems, wildlife, and people can no longer afford.

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What would it mean if President-elect Trump dismantled the US Department of Education?

By Kevin Welner. Published 11-21-2024 by The Conversation


Republicans have sought to destroy the Education Department almost since its inception
. Photo: Thomas Hawk/flickr/CC

In her role as former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon oversaw an enterprise that popularized the “takedown” for millions of wrestling fans. But as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, the Trump loyalist may be tasked with taking down the very department Trump has asked her to lead.

If Trump does dismantle the Department of Education as he has promised to do, he will have succeeded at something that President Ronald Reagan vowed to do in 1980. Just like Trump, Reagan campaigned on abolishing the department, which at the time was only a year old. Since then, the Republican Party platform has repeatedly called for eliminating the Education Department, which oversees a range of programs and initiatives. These include special funding for schools in low-income communities – known as Title I – and safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities.

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Black Friday Actions in 30+ Countries Aim to ‘Make Amazon Pay’

“When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future,” said one union leader.

By Eloise Goldsmith. Published 11-29-2024 by Common Dreams

Amazon workers in Bad Hersfeld, Germany participate in a demonstration as part of the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign. Photo: UNI Global Union/X

Amazon workers and their allies are participating in a series of global actions aimed at holding the online retailer “accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy,” according to the labor group UNI Global Union.

Dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” the campaign is set to last from November 29 to December 2 and will include strikes and protests across six continents, according to the group—and is timed to disrupt Black Friday (or “Make Amazon Pay Day”) and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

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Native Americans Hold National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving

“‘Thanksgiving’ is a white-washed holiday designed to conceal its true origins of violence, genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation,” said the Indigenous Environmental Network.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-28-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: United American Indians of New England/Facebook

In contrast with Thanksgiving celebrations across the United States on Thursday, Native Americans held a National Day of Mourning, promoted accurate history, and championed Indigenous voices and struggles.

Despite rainy conditions, the United American Indians of New England held its 55th annual National Day of Mourning at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Kisha James, who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and also Oglala Lakota, shared how her grandfather founded the event in 1970 and pledged to continue to “tear down the Thanksgiving mythology.”

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Pakistani Authorities Accused of Trying to Cover Up Killings of Protesters

“All records of dead and injured have been confiscated by authorities,” said one doctor. “We are not allowed to talk. Senior government officials are visiting the hospital to hide the records.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-27-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: Ateed ullah Khan/X

The Guardian reported Wednesday that at least 17 civilians in Pakistan were killed and hundreds more were wounded by army and paramilitary gunfire at protesters and one doctor in Islamabad claimed that authorities were attempting to cover up deaths.

“At least seven have died and four are in critical condition in the hospital,” according to the unnamed doctor, who said that on Tuesday night he treated over 40 patients, many injured by gunfire. “Eight more have been admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds.”

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Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?

“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said one group.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-26-2024 by Common Dreams

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Photo: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on “all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted.”

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Ahead of Plastics Treaty Talks, Millions Demand Production Cuts

“This plastic crisis is rooted in the overproduction of single-use plastics, building for us and future generations a very toxic legacy,” said one Indonesian youth activist.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-24-2024 by Common Dreams

Ahead of the fifth and final round of negotiations for a global plastics treaty in Busan, South Korea, people took to the streets to demand meaningful action from world leaders. Photo: #BreakFreeFromPlastic/X

With the fifth and final round of global plastics treaty negotiations set to begin Monday in Busan, South Korea, an estimated 1,500 people took to the city’s streets and nearly 3 million more signed a petition calling for a legally binding pact “to drastically reduce production and use, and protect human health and the environment.”

The Saturday march at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center was led by the global Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) movement and local allies from the Uproot Plastics Coalition. They want the treaty to include targets to slash production.

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Unions Note Chavez-DeRemer’s Record, ‘But Donald Trump Is the President-Elect’

The DOL pick has sparked debates about how much she will actually “do right by workers” and whether “Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and Donald Trump are effectively dividing the labor movement.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-23-2024 by Common Dreams

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, poses for a photo with Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) and International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien. Photo: Sean O’Brien/X

Amid a flurry of Friday night announcements about key roles in the next Trump administration, one stood out to union leaders and other advocates for working people: Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, for labor secretary.

Chavez-DeRemer, who lost her reelection bid to Democrat Janelle Bynum earlier this month, “has built a pro-labor record in Congress, including as one of only three Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and one of eight Republicans to co-sponsor the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler in a statement.

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